Bus Crash in Campbellton, Texas Kills Three
Bus Crash in Campbellton, Texas Kills Three by Texas Automobile Accident Lawyer Justin A. Hill
Major accidents involving large Motorcoach/Busses seem to be on the rise. Motorcoach accidents have been widely publicized in recent years. According to the Dallas Morning News, “In 2007, a bus carrying an Ohio college baseball team crashed in Atlanta and killed seven people. Last year, a crash near Sherman, Texas that killed 17 people and injured 40, galvanized the Texas congressional support for bus safety legislation.” Recently, NHTSA “released its Motorcoach Safety Action Plan which lays out concrete steps for improving motorcoach safety across the board. The action plan addresses major safety issues such as driver fatigue and inattention, vehicle rollover, occupant ejections and oversight of unsafe carriers.” An accident, today, in Texas is another example of the serious and devastating results of these accidents.
According to CNN.com:
A tour bus carrying at least 35 people rolled over Tuesday near Campbellton, Texas, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen, an official told CNN. Tommy Cavazos, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that 18 people were injured in the Americanos tour bus crash on Interstate 37, about 50 miles south of San Antonio in southern Texas. Most of the injured are being transported to San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center and University Hospital, Cavazos said. The bus, which was headed to Matamoros, Mexico, flipped and landed on its right side, he said. The names of those killed were not released.
According to MySA.com:
Two people were killed and at least 17 injured in a charter bus crash in Atascosa County Tuesday near Cambellton, officials said. Atascosa County chief deputy sheriff David Soward said the crash of the Americanos bus happened on Interstate 37 near mile marker 92. The bus was headed from San Antonio to Matamoros when it overturned onto a grassy median. I-37 traffic in both directions was expected to remain closed for several hours. Thirty-five people, including the driver, were on board, a DPS officer said. The female driver reported to accident investigators that she heard a popping sound immediately before the crash. Rescuers were at the scene of the 9:45 a.m. crash. Airlife took two patients to Brooke Army Medical Center and two to University Hospital in San Antonio. An Airlife dispatcher said four more medical evacuation aircraft were en route. An undetermined number of injured people were being transported by ambulance to San Antonio. Several of the passengers — young adults from San Antonio — said they were headed to the border for Spring Break.
According to KHOU.com:
A Mexican tour bus overturned in south Texas, leaving at least two people dead and numerous passengers injured. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger says the accident happened around 10 a.m. Tuesday on southbound Interstate 37, just north of Campbellton. Vinger says the bus came to rest on its side in the grassy median, about 45 miles south of San Antonio. Vinger told The Associated Press that the cause of the single-vehicle wreck is sought. He says the bus was traveling from San Antonio to Matamoros, Mexico. Vinger did not have information on where the trip originated. Vinger says the bus carried about 35 people, including the driver. The DPS spokesman did not know whether the driver was among the injured. He had no number on those hurt, saying the injured were being transported to hospitals in San Antonio. The accident happened during overcast conditions with temperatures in the mid-50s.
According WHOTV.com:
A crowded bus loaded with young families and spring breakers crashed near San Antonio Tuesday, killing two people and hurting a dozen others. Among those on the bus were four Nevada High School students. Amanda Rewerts, her sister Chrissy, and their friends Miranda Gibson and Ashli Decina were on the bus when it crashed. Justin Rewerts got the news his daughters were involved in the accident Tuesday morning. “Whew. Just, oh my God.” he said when asked about his initial reaction, “I hope they’re OK.” Amanda suffered a head injury, and Chrissy got a few bumps and bruises. They talked on the phone with their dad this afternoon. “Both Amanda and Chrissy were asleep at the time it happened.” he says, “They woke up to the bus sliding sideways down the road and they both say it rolled over. Amanda says she got knocked out and Chrissy was just kinda freaked out about it.” Amanda and Chrissy may stay in Texas to visit relatives while Gibson and Decina are expected to come back to Nevada. Rewert says he just wants to hug his daughters and see for himself that they’re alright. “It’s pretty scary,” he says, “Just so far away and you feel like you’re helpless.”
According to the Seguin Gazette Enterprise:
A Seguin couple was among dozens of people injured in an Atascosa County bus accident Tuesday morning. Roman and Diana Ann Medina were headed to South Texas and Mexico when the bus they were riding in careened off the highway and flipped, killing two passengers and injuring at least 30 others. Seguin resident Vivian Gonzales, Diane Medina’s daughter, said the couple was accompanying a relative from Atascosa County on a shopping trip to Falfurrias and Matamoros. Gonzales said her stepfather was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center and her mother was taken to Wilford Hall. She said her aunt, the relative traveling with the couple, did not sustain life-threatening injuries. “Roman is doing OK, we talked to him on the phone. He has a back fracture because of how they had to pull him out of the bus,” she said. “My mom has not been awake since the accident. Roman told us not to worry about him and to stay here with my mom.” Gonzales said her mother’s injuries include a back fracture and a small hemorrhage on the brain. “When we came to San Antonio, we went around to different hospitals because she was listed as a ‘Jane Doe,’” she said. “They think she has a good chance. We are just waiting for her to wake up.” The Americanos USA bus left San Antonio with 42 people on board and was headed to the Mexican border city of Matamoros, with a planned stop in Falfurria, Texas. The accident occurred about 45 miles from San Antonio, where the bus driver heard a loud noise before the bus veered from the right lane of Interstate 37. The bus spun toward the grassy median and landed on its right side, said Chuck Garris, the emergency management coordinator for Atascosa County. There were 25 passengers treated at South Texas Regional Medical Center. Those 25 passengers were in stable condition or preparing to be discharged, hospital spokeswoman Danielle Flores said. Two others who were initially taken to the hospital for treatment were later airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio, she said. Four passengers were transported to Brooke Army Medical Center, where they were in stable condition. Another five were airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio, where one person was in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Julie Wiley said. The condition of the other four was undetermined. A male and female passenger were killed in the crash, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said. He declined to give their names or ages. Garris said when he arrived at the scene, stunned passengers with cuts on their heads and bruises were waiting for medical treatment. Most of the passengers were adults, although there were a few small children, he said. “People were all sitting on the grass stunned, wondering what happened,” Garris said. “It was a mess.” The bus windows were shattered, and luggage, pillows and purses littered the median. It had rained overnight and early Tuesday, but investigators were unsure if weather factored into the accident, Texas DPS Trooper Jason Reyes said. Reyes said there was no initial indication the driver, 47-year-old Irma Morado, was impaired. Garris said Morado helped remove passengers from the bus. She has not been charged. Investigators suspect equipment failure may have caused the crash, Vinger said. Authorities on the scene said the tires on bus appeared intact. The National Transportation Safety Board is not planning to investigate because its initial assessment turned up no new potential safety issues involving the company or crash, agency spokesman Keith Holloway said. The NTSB for the same reason is not investigating a March 5 bus crash near Phoenix that left six passengers dead, Holloway said. The NTSB has long advocated that motor coaches include seat belts and other occupational safety devices, but the recommendations have yet to be turned into law, in part because of strong lobbying by bus companies. Americanos USA, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Greyhound Lines Inc., has a good federal safety record. Before Tuesday, the company’s vehicles were involved in 10 accidents in three states in the last 30 months, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records. Tuesday’s crash was the company’s fifth involving injuries and second involving fatalities. One person died in a January 2009 crash in San Diego involving one of its vehicles. The company’s driver was not cited. With 137 motor coaches in service, Americanos has been involved in one accident for every 13 buses. By comparison, Greyhound has been involved in one accident for every eight buses. In the last two years, inspectors placed Americanos USA vehicles out of service following 11.2 percent of their inspections, about half the national average of 22.3 percent. Inspectors placed the company’s drivers out of service after only 1.8 percent of inspections, a far lower rate than the national average of 6.6 percent. A spokeswoman with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the agency had just heard about the crash and was beginning to gather information. Bonnie Bastian, a spokeswoman for Greyhound’s parent company, FirstGroup America, said the company is assisting with the investigation. She said two buses were dispatched to the crash site to pick up uninjured passengers — one for those who wanted to continue on to Mexico and the other for those who wanted to return to San Antonio.
If someone you know was injured or killed as the result of a motor coach, RV, or bus accident, encourage them to immediately contact a competent attorney for advice. It is extremely important to do this quickly to ensure that evidence is preserved, statements are taken, and the rights of all potential plaintiffs are protected.
